In case you'd like to get a sneak peek at what you'll be rampaging all over in Wrath, Blizzard has just put up an interactive map of the new continent of Northrend on its site. It's pretty, of course, but also information-packed. For each zone, if you click on it, it lists the following information:

• Level range of the zone; the two starting zones are listed as 68–72, as we expected.
• Flight points, Alliance, Horde, and neutral. All the zones seem to have plenty of flight points, which will make it less painful not to have flying mounts until 77.
• Instances, with levels for those.
• Raids. Interestingly, both the raids currently in beta (Naxxramas and Chamber of Aspects) are in Dragonblight; I hadn't realized that.
• Zone map
  

Obviously, if you're averse to these kinds of spoilers, don't click over. Otherwise, enjoy the pretty pictures. 55 days until LK; I can't wait.

The latest beta build has brought a new twist to the good old map interface. As MMO Champion reports, there is now a dropdown box on the map screen, letting you choose from a few different "floors." What this means exactly, we aren't sure -- the obvious conclusion is that you'll now be able to look at different sections of the world map (for example, see into different levels of buildings or caverns). And Dalaran (which this map is a part of) is one of those areas that has two different levels, so this particular menu will let you see both halves of the city.

But this also suggests an even bigger change: including maps of instances in the official interface. Since launch, Blizzard hasn't ever shown us ingame instance maps (though we're not sure why -- maybe they want to require players to explore instances rather than follow a map through them). But lately, addons like Atlas have made them easily available to players, so maybe Blizzard has decided it's time to map out dungeons as well. We'll have to see what use they put this new dropdown to.

Wrath of the Lich King information is really flooding in. For the latest bit, let's take a look at some of the new maps in the game. These were obtained through a variety of sources and are 100% real, all right from the beta. Click through our gallery to see them all – including nice high res versions. You'll notice three maps missing - The Storm Peaks, Icecrown Glacier, and Dalaran. Those maps are not done yet. There are some composites that other sites have put together via the mini-map from the data files, but they're neither finished nor "normal" maps.

I like the Stormwind Harbor one the best, if only because the Stormwind map hasn't changed in all these years and it's odd to suddenly see it different. The one I enjoy the least is the Borean Tundra, the color scheme doesn't sit well with me. It looks like...well...I'll let you all draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy the maps! And stay tuned to WoW Insider all weekend, we've got some great content lined up for you.

It's a good week for posts at DwarfPriest.com, it seems. In this look at the manual for World of Warcraft, we get to see that the maps included in the original, 2004 release (which hasn't been updated since... four years later, and we're still using the same increasingly inaccurate manual) are at times surprisingly accurate to what we see in the game today. Interesting inclusions and omissions abound: the fact that Maraudon isn't on these maps but Dire Maul is just fascinates me from the perspective that Maraudon was a full patch ahead of the Maul.

I remember riding around Silithus way before the AQ release trying to get inside and see what was back there, and have been to both Hyjal and along the Greymane wall with my lovely wife who always wants to see the zones that are the hardest to access: I like the idea of Gilneas coming into the game so much that I've mused about releasing the whole zone as an instance before. For these reasons I found this look back at the game manual's maps and what has and hasn't made it into live yet to be grist for the mill of my naturally speculative brain. Will we finally see Uldum when Ulduar hits in WoTLK? Maybe Hyjal will finally go live? Will those islands off the coast of Gilneas make a reappearance on the world map? I've been wondering for years now what's up in Kul Tiras.

Anything on these maps you're surprised to see? Anything excluded that you'd expect? The very detailed map of Quel'Thalas, years before it went live, was one of my big 'woah' moments looking over these maps, which shows how easy it is for me to forget just how much lore the RTS series packed in.

Yesterday I talked about how to increase your game play by using all those buttons on your mouse. Today, we'll take a quick look at some theories on how to use your keyboard more effectively. Next week I'll present my complete keyboard map for tanking, and give lots of examples of why I have things where I have them. But for now, let's look at some basics.

I use a Logitech G15 gaming keyboard for main World of Warcraft computer. The keyboard is nice for a lot of reasons:

• The keys are hard plastic and clean easily. I can often be found eating hot pockets (Mom! Hot pockets!) or pizza roles during raids, and it's nice to be able to easily clean the keyboard if I make a mess.
• The keys light up. This is very useful late at night when I turn the lights off.
• The LCD screen is very adaptable. I use the LCD screen to display who is talking over Vent. No more asking "Who just said they need a mob taunted off them?" (of course, if they wouldn't pull agro in the first place or DPS the right target, we wouldn't have that problem now... but that's another article.)
• There are 18 additional programmable keys on the left side of the keyboard.
  

So the G15 is a nice choice for a gaming keyboard. We all know this, of course. Most of us play with one, or something similar. There are a few good and basic strategies for making the most of your G15 or other keyboard.

Thanks to Michael for alerting us to a post over at the WoW LiveJournal. He has managed to piece together a map of Sunwell Isle and the new Azeroth world map from the beta files currently available for patch 2.4. Of course, this is just beta information and may change at any time.

As far as the PTR goes, you can now download the patch files. However, when you try to copy a character you get the error message "You have no characters on Anvilmar," or what ever server you live on. This is because while the patch files are available, the server is not up yet.

Stay tuned to WoW Insider all this weekend for the latest patch news!

See the new maps after the break.

This is wild. According to Variety's Asian film blog, the above is reportedly a picture from China's military television channel, from a documentary about troop movements last year between Turkey, Iraq and Iran. See anything familiar?

They have reused the mountain textures and background from WoW's Arathi Highlands map. There's been a little bit of tweaking, but it's pretty clear that they overlaid the countries on the Highlands. Apparently Stromgarde got split between Turkey and Iraq, and Baghdad sits right near the Circle of Inner Binding, while Refuge Pointe (and the Alliance entrance to the Arathi Basin) is right on the Iraq-Iran border. Who knew there was so much oil guarded by Fozruk and those ogres?

What I'd like to know is how this connection was made in the first place. It's probably too good to be true, but I'd like to think that the graphic designer for this documentary was trying to figure out how to make this graphic, played a little WoW, and recognized some familiar shapes when he pulled up the map on his level 35 alt.

[Via GSW]

Every Thursday, V'Ming - who thinks that gnome warlocks are travesties of nature and need to be KOSed - shares thoughts and ideas on becoming deadlier at the Arenas. He also dabbles in the dark arts in Blood Pact.

Your team is randomly ported to any one of the three maps when a rated match or a practice skirmish starts. Given the frenetic brevity of Arena matches (other than this Shaman-Druid standoff), most players learn the lay of the land the hard way - through matches.

Of course, you can size up the terrain by visiting two of the arenas in Nagrand and Blade's Edge Mountains. Unfortunately, this is not an option for Ruins of Lordaeron, which does not have a 'real' world location and is only accessible through the Arena Battlemasters.

Each map has its unique terrain and tactical implications, and players quickly develop their likes and dislikes.

Currently our map of Azeroth has two continents, but anyone who's played the original RTS games knows more is out there. Blizzplanet has some interesting information that leads me to hazard a guess that we may be seeing more added to the cartography of Azeroth in the future.

They start with the information, lore and such that were added to the World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery tabletop rulebook. Should you own a copy (I, alas, do not) you will find it contains new info on Northrend and the South Seas. The maps that we saw on the WoW Collector's Edition behind the scenes DVD of Azeroth show that they have been planning such an expansion since 2004. On the map, it shows Northrend at the top of the world, with the Maelstrom and Nazajatar in the middle and the Isle of Kezen/Undermine at the bottom.

Cartographer is a map mod. In fact, from what I've seen, Cartographer is the map mod -- it provides every feature I've wanted for my various map needs, and looks rather pretty while doing so. (The one exception to this is AtlasLoot's "what drops where" functionality; Cartographer doesn't do that.) Edit: apparently it does do that too! Sweet. In the screenshot above, you can see:

• Flight point locations
• Mining vein spawns
• Trainers
• Vendors
• Available/completed/repeatable quest giver locations (there's a quest I could get at the Temple of Telhemat)
  
• Levels and caps of instances
• Full map, even the unexplored parts
• Coordinates and distance from the player to where the cursor is

All the location notes on the map are learned as you play, so you have to visit an NPC or resource node once and from then on Cartographer will remember where it is. It's clever enough to auto-switch mining and herb displays on and off as appropriate, and I believe it will also not say a quest is available unless you're of sufficient level to take it. You can also create arbitrary notes on the map for any reason, and it has instance maps with boss locations and such. But I haven't even hit its best feature yet...

Since this is the international year of the spy (2-007), and every spy needs reliable intelligence, I humbly present to you the following. Gnomeproblem.com has posted some lovely maps of 5 of the 7 Outland zones (they're missing Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley [thanks, Kaziel]). The maps include sub-zones, so you should have no trouble figuring out where exactly that quest secret mission is trying to send you to.

In case you guys haven't noticed yet, by the way, you can now see Outland and its zones in the in-game map. I particularly like the furthest-zoomed-out map, with the demon and the white-haired guy. But what's that thing just to the left of Azeroth, with the propellor?

[via Tobold's MMORPG Blog]